BARELY had the ink dried on the 27th Ame­ndment that talk of the 28th began. Were it to be passed, the much-discussed 28th amendment would purportedly strip away constitutional protection for provincial shares under the seventh NFC award. This fits a long-standing agenda: the PML-N, the PTI, the establishment and international lenders have all argued that Islamabad needs a larger slice of the divisible pool. But to revisit the vertical distribution of resources through opaque bargaining, arm-twisting and political engineering is not a technical tweak. It strikes at the core of Pakistan’s federal compact and carries grave implications for provincial aut­o­nomy, federal cohesion and human development.

Supporters of the proposed amendment adv­ance three main arguments. First, they say the seventh NFC award shifted an unduly large share of the divisible pool to the provinces without a matching transfer of expenditure responsibilities. Second, they argue that easy access to federal transfers has created a ‘moral hazard’, thus dulling incentives for provinces to broaden their tax base. Third, they accuse provincial governments of wasteful and politically motivated spending on salaries and discretionary development schemes, with little improvement in public services.

Some of these concerns are not entirely without merit. In Balochistan, for instance, the development budget is formulated and implemented almost entirely on the basis of political considerations. Over time, development spending has become deeply inefficient,........

© Dawn